


Summer Festival

by Living_in_SCoups_eyelashes



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Angst, Eventual Smut, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:02:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29112747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Living_in_SCoups_eyelashes/pseuds/Living_in_SCoups_eyelashes
Summary: Seungcheol is an office worker, so stressed and tired of life, he managed to hallucinate Jeonghan, a significant person from his past he quite forgot.
Relationships: Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Hong Jisoo | Joshua, Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Yoon Jeonghan
Kudos: 9





	Summer Festival

01\. I Brought Home the Stranger from the Train Station

He has just failed to reach his monthly quota, again. Maybe he has failed to do so for the past 5 months already, he has lost count. His boss threatened to fire him due to his poor performance, but he has heard the same lines over and over again, it started to become part of his routine. 

Choi Seungcheol, 25, a surprisingly average office worker. Takes the line 1 home, at exactly 08:08 p.m. everyday except on Sundays. He knows the train regulars, including the youthful university students enjoying their night life. Looking back on his own university days, he probably only hung out with his classmates, not even friends, twice. First during the welcome party, and the second during the farewell party. Both of which, he was just forced to come with. 

08:00, he walked a bit faster today, making him 5 minutes earlier than usual. His line was less packed despite being within Seoul. After all, it was a line going away from the central district, and most people with him were office workers who looked just as tired. 

While sitting on a bench, with his suitcase on his lap, all he could think of was the hot bath he would get into. Once he's submerged in the water, a gush of peace would come over him and life was a bit better. He can play his favorite video game and maybe order some chicken and tteokbokki and sleep late since it was a Saturday night. The peace awaiting him occupied his head, blurring and silencing the station noise around him. 

"Cheol! You're early today. What's the matter?" The daydreamer was pulled out of his fantasy when a pair o hands tugged on his suit. He had no close acquaintances, not even intimate office mates, in the city and his family would certainly not suddenly meet him here. Aside from those two possibilities, he could only think of the mysterious guy as some scammer. 

"Sorry, you're unlucky tonight. You won't get anything from me. All I have are debts and maybe a slice of cake at home. Would you like that?" He thought playing along would make the stranger go away. Not that any of what he said was a lie. 

"Is it chocolate cake?" The stranger quickly responded. "I'm surprised you're asking me to come home with you already! You've become really bold, Cheollie." 

What came after that was a blur. Or maybe the young guy refuses to acknowledge that he just brought home a stranger, and not in the way that he'd hook up with him. 

"Ah, I'll prepare the bath! You can relax and prepare my chocolate cake!" The stranger was kind of... intruding. And it was as if the place was nothing new to him. Seungcheol, thinking his life would soon end through this modus, thought nothing of it and just wished to enjoy the last Saturday night of his life. 

"He probably has members waiting outside, ready to ambush and rob my place. Was I being stupid for letting him in? Nah. This is the most thrilling thing that will happen to my life might as well welcome it with open arms." And welcome it with open arms he did. He sprawled on the sofa with a cold can of beer on hand. "Want some?" He shouted as he raised his can over the sofa. 

The stranger paused in his steps. "I never learned how to drink." 

Seungcheol sighed as he pulled the stranger to the sofa to hand him his untouched can. "You can have this. I'll get a new can." 

The young pale stranger stared at the cold can of beer forced unto his hands. It's not like he can actually feel its coldness, but since Seungcheol said it was cold, it must be. 

"Are you some virgin prince or heir kept locked inside some mansion?" Seungcheol asked without a trace of sarcasm. "Beer is the only thing that can warm your throat and stomach after a long tiring day at work." He said before gulping the new beer in his hand. 

"I was locked up, yes. For a very long time..." Silence filled the room. Although Seungcheol expected a sad story as a part of the modus, he never really knew how he should react. 

"Uhm, you're free now, I guess? Are you a prostitute? Are you being used for some scamming scheme? Because I seriously have nothing with me. Can you see how cramped my apartment is?"

True enough, his room was only 4 by 5 meters big, without a proper living room and a kitchen that can only accomodate one person at a time. He doesn't even have a washing machine. What did this scheming group want from him? His organs maybe? He's quite young and healthy, maybe his organs cost very high in the black market. 

"What are you saying?" The pale stranger burst out laughing. "You thought I was a scammer, yet you still invited me to your house? Do you have a death wish?"

Seungcheol, in fact, has a death wish. But he dares not say it.

"You're not?" He sounded dumb by that time. 

"Jeonghan, same age as you. I often see you in the subway, but I don't think you ever noticed me. You're there by 08:05 everyday, except Sundays. You take the same train as me, and you get off the same station as me." He calmly explained before taking a small sip from the can. It tasted like nothing he has ever tasted. The bitterness drowned the sweetness of this meeting, making him nauseous. 

"Are you my stalker?" 

"What? No! Why would you drink this? It's horrible!" He pushed the can to Seungcheol, vigorously shaking his head. "All yours. Your tongue must be sick."

"Jeonghan, wasn't it? Where do you live?"

"Hmmm just around here." 

"And you were around that station as well?"

"You can say that."

"And you're really not my stalker?"

"No!!" Jeonghan protested. "I finally mustered the courage to approach you, and you think of me as a scammer, stalker, what next?"

Seungcheol laughed at his own stupidity. He was no one worth stalking after all, he thought to himself. He let out a good laugh while his new-found neighbor slash fellow train rider stared at him. 

"So, cake?" Jeonghan smiled from ear to ear at the offer. Seungcheol though he must like cake so much because he's now blushing. 

It was his last slice, and he was offering it to a stranger, not something he usually did. But when he returned to his new... acquaintance, he had been dozing off. 

"Hey, here's your cake. Don't go dozing off on me." He went closer to offer the cake but he noticed how red Jeonghan had become. His eyes were watery and the redness was slowly spreading. 

"Hey!! Are you allergic to alcohol?" He was almost shouting. 

"Hmmm, I- I don't know. My head's spinning. Is this because of the alcohol? Why would you drink something so poisonous?" Jeonghan fell out of consciousness after barely finishing his sentence. 

Seungcheol was panicking. He has never experienced taking care of a drunk friend, much more a friend allergic to alcohol despite barely sipping the beer. He quickly grabbed antihistamine from his medicine bag and pushed the drug to Jeonghan's mouth followed by some water. But his pale friend was not swallowing.

He was thinking of calling an ambulance but it might be too much. He just needed to get him to drink this and some rest. He slapped Jeonghan on the cheeks slightly to try and force him to swallow to no avail. 

"I'm sorry, but you might die from anaphylactic shock." 

And he finally made up his mind. He gulped about 100 ml of water then made sure the drug was above Jeonghan's tongue. With closed eyes, his lips locked with Jeonghan's and his mouth forcefully pushed the water into the other's mouth. He tried to rhythmically slide his hand down Jeonghan's throat to force him to swallow even more. Two attempts of this successfully pushed the drug down Jeonghan's throat. 

It was a Saturday night, Seungcheol was tired. He brought a stranger home, and kissed him while he was unconscious. He must really be dying soon.

**Author's Note:**

> No promises on updates, sorry.


End file.
